Time for round two of massive openings. After over a year, CANADA Gallery finally reopens in its new Broome street space, right across from P!. On Thursday night, Chelsea opens. On Friday night, something’s going down at the Redhook galleries, but we’re not sure what. And tomorrow, we hope Cleopatra’s doubles its benefit goals for artist, curator, and Dependent Fair founder Rose Marcus, to help her pay for major surgery–and so do many talented artists who’ve contributed to her benefit auction. All that, and more, after the jump!

We’re back! It’s been a while since we’ve given you a “We Went To,” but here we are to tell you about the best and worst of what’s on view on the Upper East Side. One fact became clear on this trip: John Baldessari has made a career out of oxymorons.

The Independent Art Fair's great gift: eye contact. With vast ceilings, large windows, and no cubicle-style booths, people aren’t constantly scanning the room behind you to locate James Franco. This means no angry smiles, no high-speed nodding, and no cracked-out active listening. The tone is friendlier. Admission is free, and light is ample. Much of the work is genuinely interesting. Open space literally translates an air of transparency; though this is still no place for an art experience, it feels closer to an exhibition than a department store.

Gavin Brown seems to attract compelling narratives. Last fall, no one could shut up aboutRob Pruitt’scome back. This summer, we’reall talkingabout the gallery’s Peter Nadin show (on view through July 30), another artist with a come back story for the ages. As the story goes, Nadin ran a gallery with Christopher D'Arcangelo in the 80’s until disputes over management dissolved the partnership. Following this, the artist suffered a nervous breakdown which according to the Times, “caused Nadin to begin seeing the world in a fundamentally different way.”